Walking Dead marches one last time

Attendees look on as members of the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 2nd Marine Division pass in review at Camp Lejeune before deactivation Friday morning.

Photo by John Althouse / The Daily News

By Adelina Colbert - Adelina.colbert@JDNews.com

Published: Friday, August 29, 2014 at 02:36 PM.

Marines with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment marched together for the last time during the unit’s deactivation ceremony on Friday, but Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Corey Collier said it would only be a matter time before the colors of the Walking Dead will unfold again.

“These colors will open up once again,” said Collier. “They will awaken the spirit of the dead walkers and a new element of Marines will come out here and they will take on the moniker, they will take on the logo, they will unfold the flag and they will carry the legacy forward of everybody that went before them.”

The battalion was first given the ominous alias in Vietnam after Ho Chih Minh declared that he would kill Marines with the unit and the Marines should just consider themselves as “the dead walking”, said Collier.

“That name comes from the North Vietnamese and the moniker given to them and worn as an honor by the battalion,” he said.

Whitey Peck, a Vietnam veteran with the battalion from 1967 to 1968, were among the hundreds of people at the ceremony on Friday.

“We were the most decorated unit in the Marine Corps,” said Peck. “There’s a lot of pride.”

Collier said the battalion could easily be argued as one of the best units in the Corps, having fought in battles during World War II, Vietnam and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marines with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment marched together for the last time during the unit’s deactivation ceremony on Friday, but Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Corey Collier said it would only be a matter time before the colors of the Walking Dead will unfold again.

“These colors will open up once again,” said Collier. “They will awaken the spirit of the dead walkers and a new element of Marines will come out here and they will take on the moniker, they will take on the logo, they will unfold the flag and they will carry the legacy forward of everybody that went before them.”

The battalion was first given the ominous alias in Vietnam after Ho Chih Minh declared that he would kill Marines with the unit and the Marines should just consider themselves as “the dead walking”, said Collier.

“That name comes from the North Vietnamese and the moniker given to them and worn as an honor by the battalion,” he said.

Whitey Peck, a Vietnam veteran with the battalion from 1967 to 1968, were among the hundreds of people at the ceremony on Friday.

“We were the most decorated unit in the Marine Corps,” said Peck. “There’s a lot of pride.”

Collier said the battalion could easily be argued as one of the best units in the Corps, having fought in battles during World War II, Vietnam and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We had more months in combat than any other unit in Vietnam,” he said. “48 continuous months in contact with the enemy. No other unit has that history.”

The battalion was first activated in 1942 and has been deactivated twice before -- once in 1945 and again in 1994. The decision to deactivate the battalion comes as the Marine Corps is looking to reduce its manpower while the nation’s leaders continue to work to cut the size of America’s military after more than a decade of war in the Middle East.

Despite being deactivated a third time, Collier said Marines will forever remember the battalion.

“This battalion has a long, very storied and a strong alumni network because of the relationships built by the Marines who were in this battalion,” he said. “This is a very special day to them.”

Richard Whitney, a senior Chief Petty Officer with the Navy who deployed with 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment in 2013 and who was injured during his tour, said he was at the ceremony as a tribute to the battalion.

“Well I thought it was important to be here to honor those that came before us and those that aren’t with us anymore,” said Whitney.

Collier took command of the battalion several months after a training accident at the Hawthorne Army Depot resulted in the death of seven Marines. Despite the incident, Collier said his Marines were resilient.

“Even in that incident, even in Hawthorne, Marines from 1/9 distinguished themselves,” he said. “We cannot let that be the defining moment of the battalion.”

1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment had its final combat tour to Afghanistan in September 2013 where the battalion again suffered more casualties, said Collier.

“Today is the kind of day where its bittersweet,” he said. “That’s difficult because there were Marines while they were under this flag that we did not bring home but sweet in the sense that it (the flag) will be back up again no doubt.”

As proven in history, Marines will know when to call on the Walking Dead and Collier believes it will not be long before that happens again.

“We are just going to go behind friendly lines where we can lay our heads down until they call and wake us up again,” he said. “Until they decide, ‘You know, we need the dead walkers, it’s gotten bad, it’s gotten bad enough we need them and they will open up the flag again-- I promise.”